On python-dev, Martin commented that if it was unnecessary to remove an unused function in 2.7, then I shouldn’t have done it.  I agreed, planned to revert that removal, however unlikely it was that someone depended on it, and then I couldn’t make up my mind in the middle of diverging opinions that followed.  I missed the 3.1.3 release deadline, so the change is out there now.  I’m going to leave 2.7 as it is, and at the first complaint about broken third-party code I’ll revert the removal.